ohi logo
OHI Science | Citation policy

This document describes results from the 2021 global OHI assessment. This is mostly an internal document to explore and check results. It also creates the figures used on the website and in other documents.

Primary dataset

These data are the OHI scores for the eez regions of 220 countries and territories from 2012 to 2021.

Region 0 is the global average scores, which are calculated using an area-weighted average of the region scores (status, likely future state, and score).

OHI scores

Global summary

This section describes global patterns in index and goal scores. The overall global score was 71.25.

Alternative color scale

Average global performance of the 10 goals.

Flower plots for each region can be downloaded from here

Country summary

Country index scores for 2021. Maps describing goal and index scores can be downloaded from here.

Distribution of country index scores. The median index score among countries was 70.4.

The regions with index scores of 80 or greater are:

region_name Index
Howland Island and Baker Island 93.30
Heard and McDonald Islands 91.73
Bouvet Island 90.88
Kerguelen Islands 87.87
Jarvis Island 85.81
Jan Mayen 85.53
Seychelles 85.30
Ile Europa 84.97
Saba 84.31
Turks and Caicos Islands 84.30
Glorioso Islands 84.05
Germany 83.87
Norfolk Island 83.70
New Zealand 83.48
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands 83.08
Aruba 83.07
Clipperton Island 82.92
Greenland 81.66
Norway 81.64
Madeira 81.12
Northern Saint-Martin 80.62
United Arab Emirates 80.61
Sint Maarten 80.56
Bahamas 80.46
Qatar 80.39
Palmyra Atoll 80.08

The regions with index scores of 50 or less are:

region_name Index
Liberia 48.64
Democratic Republic of the Congo 46.59
Ivory Coast 44.69

Country scores across scenario year

Carpet plot figure (download as high resolution png) providing an overview of the scores from the 2021 assessment. Each row represents a region, the main groupings represent goals, and within each goal there are 7 years of data. Black regions indicate no data.

Don’t try too hard to interpret the results for specific countries/goals/years!!

This plot is good for providing a quick overview of:

  • What is the range of scores?
  • Which goals tend to have high scores across most regions (species, habitat)
  • Which goals have a lot of variation across regions (tourism & recreation, lasting special places)
  • Which goals are volatile across years (natural products, tourism & recreation)

Data

This interactive table describes the index and goal scores for the regions in 2021 (or, download csv version):




A closer look at goals

This section takes a closer look at the goal/subgoal scores.

Scores

Goal/subgoal scores for the 2021 scenario.

Artisanal opportunities

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name score
Norway 100.00
United Arab Emirates 100.00
Qatar 100.00
Cayman Islands 100.00
United States 100.00
Ireland 100.00
Brunei 100.00
Singapore 100.00
Denmark 99.98
Netherlands 99.96

Bottom 10 performers

region_name score
191 Vanuatu 46.72
192 Benin 45.94
193 Comoro Islands 45.87
194 Solomon Islands 45.70
195 Cameroon 45.46
196 Guinea 44.92
197 Madagascar 44.50
198 Mozambique 44.34
199 Liberia 43.67
200 Togo 43.42

Species condition

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name score
Romania 94.49
Northern Saint-Martin 94.05
Saba 92.97
Finland 92.43
Sint Eustatius 92.32
Estonia 91.97
Bulgaria 91.92
Australia 91.90
Heard and McDonald Islands 91.87
Lithuania 91.66

Bottom 10 performers

region_name score
211 Montenegro 70.41
212 Italy 70.01
213 Israel 68.55
214 Malta 66.63
215 Cyprus 65.41
216 Syria 65.00
217 Algeria 64.86
218 Lebanon 64.68
219 Monaco 61.67
220 Libya 59.85

Habitat

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name score
Aruba 100.00
Pitcairn 100.00
American Samoa 100.00
Macquarie Island 100.00
French Polynesia 99.98
Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul Island 99.98
Clipperton Island 99.95
Saba 99.94
Kerguelen Islands 99.90
Wallis and Futuna 99.88

Bottom 10 performers

region_name score
211 Sint Eustatius 65.33
212 Democratic Republic of the Congo 63.60
213 Iceland 62.99
214 Gabon 62.96
215 Ivory Coast 62.52
216 Andaman and Nicobar 61.57
217 Jan Mayen 61.46
218 Poland 56.98
219 Bosnia and Herzegovina 36.65
220 Phoenix Islands (Kiribati) 36.21

Coastal protection

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name score
Howland Island and Baker Island 100
Saba 100
Norfolk Island 100
Aruba 100
Clipperton Island 100
Sint Maarten 100
Sint Eustatius 100
Curacao 100
Portugal 100
Pitcairn 100

Bottom 10 performers

region_name score
196 Peru 58.20
197 Chile 58.14
198 Uruguay 57.28
199 Argentina 57.06
200 Somalia 56.99
201 Bermuda 53.99
202 Pakistan 45.29
203 Liberia 34.82
204 Ivory Coast 32.84
205 Democratic Republic of the Congo 30.01

Carbon storage

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name score
Ile Europa 100
Saba 100
Turks and Caicos Islands 100
Aruba 100
Northern Saint-Martin 100
Sint Maarten 100
Qatar 100
Sint Eustatius 100
Saint Kitts and Nevis 100
Anguilla 100

Bottom 10 performers

region_name score
167 Guernsey 54.35
168 Cook Islands 53.75
169 Tokelau 52.93
170 Niue 52.58
171 Oman 51.34
172 Pakistan 45.16
173 Oecussi Ambeno 42.55
174 Liberia 34.75
175 Ivory Coast 32.76
176 Democratic Republic of the Congo 30.01

Clean waters

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name score
Heard and McDonald Islands 99.71
Falkland Islands 98.96
Bouvet Island 98.91
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands 98.89
Kerguelen Islands 98.78
Jarvis Island 98.38
Macquarie Island 98.22
Howland Island and Baker Island 97.70
Phoenix Islands (Kiribati) 96.82
Crozet Islands 96.67

Bottom 10 performers

region_name score
211 Guatemala 31.97
212 Israel 30.27
213 India 29.48
214 Slovenia 28.43
215 Gilbert Islands (Kiribati) 28.18
216 Nauru 24.26
217 Benin 23.89
218 Togo 21.46
219 Gibraltar 19.65
220 Monaco 19.61

Fisheries

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name score
Crozet Islands 97.60
Pitcairn 97.40
Clipperton Island 96.10
French Polynesia 95.70
Tuvalu 95.15
Howland Island and Baker Island 94.95
Heard and McDonald Islands 93.05
Wallis and Futuna 91.81
Kerguelen Islands 90.15
Ascension 89.10

Bottom 10 performers

region_name score
211 East Timor 16.23
212 Ivory Coast 14.19
213 South Korea 14.05
214 Cambodia 12.13
215 Vietnam 11.82
216 Myanmar 9.90
217 Haiti 9.73
218 Somalia 9.30
219 Bangladesh 9.01
220 North Korea 2.13

Mariculture

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name score
Norway 100
Netherlands 100
Spain 100
Slovenia 100
South Korea 100
Finland 100
Bulgaria 100
Taiwan 100
China 100
Singapore 100

Bottom 10 performers

region_name score
185 Republique du Congo 0
186 Eritrea 0
187 Equatorial Guinea 0
188 Sudan 0
189 Syria 0
190 Haiti 0
191 Libya 0
192 Liberia 0
193 Democratic Republic of the Congo 0
194 Ivory Coast 0

Iconic species

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name score
Finland 96.15
Estonia 95.83
Latvia 95.83
Lithuania 95.83
Poland 95.83
Sweden 92.78
Denmark 92.50
Germany 91.91
Bouvet Island 90.00
Romania 89.46

Bottom 10 performers

region_name score
211 Bassas da India 55.04
212 Ile Tromelin 54.98
213 Bangladesh 54.74
214 Eritrea 54.37
215 India 54.29
216 Solomon Islands 53.90
217 Yemen 53.00
218 Myanmar 51.98
219 Thailand 51.39
220 Cambodia 51.20

Lasting special places

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name score
Howland Island and Baker Island 100
Heard and McDonald Islands 100
Bouvet Island 100
Kerguelen Islands 100
Jarvis Island 100
Jan Mayen 100
Seychelles 100
Ile Europa 100
Saba 100
Glorioso Islands 100

Bottom 10 performers

region_name score
211 Niue 0
212 Andaman and Nicobar 0
213 Nauru 0
214 Gilbert Islands (Kiribati) 0
215 Togo 0
216 Benin 0
217 Eritrea 0
218 Sudan 0
219 Syria 0
220 Libya 0

Natural products

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name score
Jan Mayen 99.96
Faeroe Islands 99.90
Curacao 99.67
Tuvalu 99.66
Norway 99.54
Saba 99.34
Aruba 99.17
Djibouti 99.13
Sint Eustatius 98.98
Howland Island and Baker Island 98.48

Bottom 10 performers

region_name score
208 Cook Islands 14.81
209 Micronesia 10.25
210 Singapore 8.24
211 Vanuatu 6.63
212 Tonga 5.40
213 Belize 2.43
214 Jamaica 2.19
215 Haiti 0.83
216 Suriname 0.77
217 Marshall Islands 0.40

Tourism and recreation

Scores

Top 10 performers

region_name score
Seychelles 100
Saba 100
New Zealand 100
Aruba 100
Sint Maarten 100
Bahamas 100
Sint Eustatius 100
Greece 100
Saint Kitts and Nevis 100
Curacao 100

Bottom 10 performers

region_name score
191 Benin 9.64
192 Republique du Congo 9.14
193 Nigeria 8.67
194 Sierra Leone 8.60
195 Libya 7.07
196 Gabon 5.46
197 Angola 5.12
198 Papua New Guinea 4.92
199 Yemen 4.11
200 Democratic Republic of the Congo 2.00

Other analyses

Comparing trend and average index scores

To obtain a more complete picture of which regions are doing well and which are doing poorly we compared the average index scores (averaged over 2012 to 2021) and the trends for each region.

Of most concern are regions that have poor scores and declining trends.

The following is an interactive plot (region names are visible when hovering over the points) showing the relationship between average index scores and trend. The horizontal line represents the 0 trend and the vertical line is the average of the average index scores.

Comparing assessment years

The following is a comparison of the global status scores generated for the 2021 scenario by this year’s assessment vs. last year’s assessment.

If the models and source data remain the same, these scores should be exactly the same. Differences indicate changes in methods or source data.

These changes do not reflect changes in actual system health!

long_goal future pressures resilience score status trend
Artisanal opportunities 0.0782500 0.0019545 0.3776818 0.0387000 0.0000000 0.0000000
Biodiversity 0.0866818 NaN NaN -0.1972273 -0.4815909 0.0013182
Carbon storage 4.2147973 0.1427027 1.0397297 3.3598649 2.5054730 0.0562400
Clean water -0.0012273 0.0015455 -0.0019545 -0.0004091 0.0000000 0.0000000
Coastal protection 2.6479882 0.3957558 0.3891860 2.3040828 1.9608876 -0.0053691
Economies 0.0006863 -0.0108057 -0.0030909 0.0004902 0.0000000 0.0000000
Fisheries (subgoal) 0.7310909 -0.0451818 0.1753636 0.5972273 0.4631818 0.0083636
Food provision 0.6969545 NaN NaN 0.5770000 0.4571364 0.0073182
Habitat (subgoal) -0.1553211 1.0767890 0.5449541 -0.7396789 -1.3245413 0.0064352
Iconic species (subgoal) -0.9029091 0.0074545 0.1388636 -0.8366818 -0.7713182 -0.0023636
Index 0.6048636 NA NA 0.5210000 NA NA
Lasting special places (subgoal) 2.9090000 0.0025000 -0.0022727 2.7387273 2.5680909 0.0181818
Livelihoods 0.0018137 -0.0128436 -0.0017727 0.0013235 0.0000000 0.0000000
Livelihoods & economies 0.0016667 NaN NaN 0.0009804 -0.0001471 0.0006373
Mariculture (subgoal) -0.1049223 0.0025455 4.1116364 -0.1918653 -0.2789119 0.0115026
Natural products -1.8285253 0.0705069 0.1019355 -2.1230876 -2.4173733 0.0050472
Sense of place 1.0030909 NaN NaN 0.9507727 0.8988636 0.0083182
Species condition (subgoal) 0.4260455 -0.0249091 0.5560455 0.3963636 0.3670455 -0.0015455
Tourism & recreation -0.3179000 0.0023636 -0.0019545 -0.3205000 -0.3228500 0.0003000

Country data

The following interactive plot provides an overview of how the 2021 scenario scores changed between the 2020 and 2021 assessments for all goals and dimensions.